Someone Like Catherine - A McRoll in the REAL World Story
by Mari217
Summary: No one appreciates more than Steve what it means to have someone like Catherine.
_Sammy and Ilna, thank you for the fun and also for the support - especially this week! Loooove you guys._

 _REALMcRollers we are so excited about the REALWedding! Thanks for the love and great reviews!_

* * *

 **Someone Like Catherine**

"Hey, Got a sec?" Catherine entered Steve's office as he was closing an evidence file.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Did you see the email on my eval?"

"No." He shook his head. "I just finished reviewing the data on the Hauser case. Why?"

"I'm up next and according to this," she offered him a print out, "Hedley is doing mine."

Steve stood and reached for the paper. "What? How come?"

She smiled softly. "Because it's a conflict for you to write an eval on your _fiancee_." She held up her hand and waved her ring finger, her smile growing at the look in his eyes at the word.

"No."

She stepped closer. "What do you mean, _no_?"

"I mean, no, it's not, I can be objective." He crossed his arms.

"You got the email," Danny stated as he entered carrying an evidence box. He'd been in Catherine's office when she'd received it.

"I can be objective," Steve repeated.

"I know you can, but the dictum still says I'm getting my eval done by Hedley."

"Hmpf." Steve moved to open his own email and finding the one from the governor's office, read the part pertaining to Catherine out loud.

' … _after April 30th of this year, Lieutenant Catherine Rollins will be Commander McGarrett's wife."_ Catherine noticed his mouth twitch up in a small smile as he read the word, and she couldn't suppress one of her own as he continued, _"Which will be in conflict with the state ordinance stating: a ranking officer cannot prepare the evaluation of a near relative. The next higher person in a line supervisory position, or one deemed by same will conduct the evaluation of a near relative. Therefore the the evaluation for Lieutenant Rollins scheduled for Monday, April 11, 2016 will be performed by by Ross Hedley…'_

Steve trailed off and looked up.

"Ross Hedley." Danny's smile was teasing. "Isn't that the new young aide in the governor's office all the buzz is about? The - wait, let me phrase it right - 'hot, smart one' according to the ladies in HPD?" He snorted.

"Haven't seen him," Steve huffed.

"I have," Catherine said. "He's very serious." She shook her head at Danny's attempt to bust his partner. Steve was the least jealous guy on the planet - because he was one hundred percent confident he had no reason to be. "I'm going to my eval." She smiled at Steve and turned to Danny. "If you're gone before I get back, tell Grace I'll pick her up at six tomorrow morning to run."

Danny waved and chuckled before turning to Steve. "Ya know, anyone else might be a little ruffled. New person, new hire actually, doing their eval, but not someone like Catherine."

Steve moved to begin reviewing the evidence Danny had brought in as his eyes returned from following Catherine's retreating form. "I'm in the field with her, how can anyone else evaluate … never mind." He shook his head. "I'm sure she'll get an outstanding eval based on the stats and reports alone. Not to mention the interview." He looked at Danny.

"Oh the interview," Danny teased. "That just might just make the handsome," his eyes glinted with amusement, "younger than you, Mister Ross Hedley's day. Getting to talk to someone smart _and_ beautiful after interviewing probably fifteen surly cops all morning who want nothing more than to get the hell out of his office and back to work." He looked pointedly at his partner.

Steve rolled his eyes. "Ya know what, Danny?"

"What, Steven? I've seen you after an eval interview, so yes, you resemble that remark. Catherine, on the other hand, is always pleasant, well, unless you're a perp, and everyone likes her. Another thing that makes you lucky."

Before he could answer, Steve's phone rang. With a quick motion to Danny that they caught a case, he tucked the phone between his chin and shoulder and checked his weapon while saying, "What've we got?"

* * *

After her interview, Catherine sat in Ross Hedley's office reviewing her evaluation form. Her eyes skimmed several points.

 ** _TASK FORCE OFFICER_**

 _Lieutenant Catherine Rollins_

 _PERFORMANCE CATEGORIES RATING INSTRUCTIONS:_

 _Rate performance of employee in the following categories.  
U = Unacceptable; A = Acceptable; E = Excels: _

_Field Performance: Stress Conditions: E  
 **Consistently exhibits exemplary skills under high stress conditions  
**_

 _Officer Safety: Contact/Cover/Pat-down: E  
 **No issues with personal safety or with that of other officers or civilians**_

 _Prisoner Control or Investigative Detention: E  
 **Executes control over prisoners and suspect without excessive force  
**_

 _Control of Conflict: E  
 **Excels at conflict control in varying situations from domestic to highly volatile large scale  
**_

 _Physical Skill: E  
 **Consistently scores in the top 99% percentile including task force members and all officers being evaluated  
**_

 _Spatial/ Location Skills: E  
 **Is aware of threats and aware of safety of other personnel and civilians at all times**_

.

 ** _PERFORMANCE TASKS_**

 _Driving Skills: Moderate Stress/Emergency: E  
 **Can operate vast array of vehicles and maintain control while in emergency/high stress situations. Including while under fire from a suspect in a high traffic area. (See report 2/18/16 #qws-990)**_

 _Interview/Interrogator Skills: E  
 **Skillful at establishing rapport with witnesses and or victims and quickly elicits information in many instances**_

 _Oral Communication: E  
 **Orders to subordinates and transmissions are well planned and need not be repeated.**_

 _Departmental Policies and Procedures: A  
 **The task force does on occasion skirt normal procedures under the direction of Commander McGarrett.**_

 _Use of Force: E  
 **Excessive force not implied**_

 ** _COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS POLICE OFFICER PERFORMANCE CATEGORIES_**

 _Attitude towards Police Work: E  
 **Excellent and has adapted especially well coming from a non-HPD background**_

 _Relationship with Citizens: E  
 **Often praised by citizens for assistance above and beyond (See attached)**_

 _Relationship with Department Members: E  
 **No complaints lodged. Department members speak highly of Lieutenant Rollins**_

 _Follows Orders: E  
 **Anticipates and follows orders of superior officer succinctly**_

 _Stress Control: E  
 **Maintains composure in high stress situations**_

 _Problem Solving: E  
 **Lieutenant Rollins' background in Naval Intelligence lends itself well, making her an asset to the task force**_

 _Judgment: E  
 **Quickly and accurately judges a situation**_

 _General Appearance: E  
 **Non-uniformed position / No complaints filed**_

.

Hedley closed the folder containing the duplicate of what Catherine was reading. "You consistently achieve the highest attainable scores on the range and your PFTs and we've received several communications from citizens that mention you specifically."

Catherine smiled. "Thank you. That's nice to hear."

"We have an email from an Elaine Lu dated February 20th I'd like to share.

' _When my store was robbed at gunpoint, the task force responded immediately. I was pretty much too hysterical to remember any details, but Lieutenant Rollins took the time to sit with me and calm me down to where I could give a description of the man._

 _Thanks to her, I even remembered part of a license plate. She's not only a great cop, she's a very kind, compassionate person. I just want the Governor to know that a member of his task force was so wonderful to me when I was the victim of a robbery. It's nice to know we're being protected by someone like Lieutenant Rollins._

 _Elaine Lu."_

"Ms. Lu was an excellent witness, she just needed some reassurance," Catherine said.

"Which you provided." He nodded. "There's also an additional letter and two logged calls regarding your assistance to victims and witnesses. All good.

I'll transmit the final evaluation and my notes to the Governor and Commander McGarrett by end of business today." Hedley offered his hand, and Catherine shook it as they stood. "This is one of the best check sheets I've seen, Lieutenant. It's a pleasure doing an eval on someone like you who is so dedicated and excellent at their job. Thanks for your outstanding work." He paused before adding, "Be careful out there."

"Will do. Thank you, sir. Nice meeting you." Catherine gathered her things and headed for the door, a small smile on her lips.

"And Lieutenant?"

She turned. "Sir?"

"Congratulations to you and the Commander. Scuttlebutt says it's going to be the wedding of the millennium."

"I don't know about that, but thank you again." She tilted her head. "Navy, Sir?" Her smile grew at his nod.

"Four years."

He returned the smile. "And in my experience, scuttlebutt is usually pretty spot on. Enjoy your day, Lieutenant."

Catherine left the office and checked her watch. Pulling out her phone, she texted Steve. _All done. HQ?_

His return text dinged as she reached her car. _Wrapping up a scene. HQ. Run what you can on an Ensign Zachary Peters. Danny and I due back in 45._

* * *

 _ **Evening**_

Steve was looking at his laptop - the first opportunity he'd had since they broke at seven.

"What 'cha doing?" Catherine joined him on the sofa and handed him a beer to go with the pizza they'd ordered.

"Checking your eval." He took the offered bottle and smiled his thanks. "I could have done it, you know."

"I know. But it is what it is, Steve. It was perfectly okay." She took a slice of pizza and hummed at her first bite. "Hmm I'm starving."

"This is an outstanding eval." Steve grinned proudly. "Not that I expected anything less." He pointed to the screen and snorted.

"What?"

" _The task force does on occasion skirt normal procedures under the direction of Commander McGarrett."_ He read out loud. "Seems following my orders earned you your only slightly negative comment."

"Which I was asked about. And I made it clear that I … _we_ follow your orders because they're valid orders, even when they're sometimes …" she leaned in and kissed his cheek, "unorthodox."

His tone was teasing, but his eyes were serious. "Thank you."

"No need. To hell and back, Steve. You know that."

"Which you've done. More than once."

"And I'll continue to. At work and in life." She held his gaze. "And I know you'd do the same."

"That's another reason why I love you. And yeah, I would."

"He wished us luck, by the way." Catherine lightened the moment with a brilliant smile.

"Who?" Steve asked around a bite of pizza.

"Ross Hedley."

"The handsome, _young_ , cool new aide?" He grinned.

"The same."

"Angling for an invitation?"

"Nope. Called it the wedding of the millennium, according to the scuttlebutt."

Steve chuckled."Don't tell Danny, he'll wanna sell tickets."

"Yeah, well, Hedley was nice, actually. Serious and thorough but nice."

"Gonna miss doing your evals." He smiled.

"Aww. You can always evaluate my _non-work_ related performances, Commander," she teased, her hand dropping to his thigh.

"I'd have to be very thorough, Lieutenant. Especially with someone like you."

"Someone like, me, huh?"

"Brilliant. Beautiful. Willing to marry me …"

"Thank you, but that last one's not accurate…" She kissed him playfully "Willing to marry you - may be someone _like_ me, but _can't wait_ to marry you - that's exactly me."

He returned the kiss and pulled back to smile at her. "And that makes someone like me a really, really lucky guy."

 _# End Thanks for reading_

* * *

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